Unlawful Poetics
Unlawful Poetics is a grassroots collaborative project creating life-affirming, liberatory poetry out of hateful, repressive legislation. The United States is currently undergoing a resurgence of violent legislation that weaponizes language in an attempt to criminalize and erase LGBTQ2S+, BIPOC, immigrant, and other marginalized communities. In response, this project invites activists, organizers, artists, poets, and everyday people to literally erase repressive language so liberatory language can emerge.
Launched in tandem with "Can't Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines", this project will first focus on poetry related to Florida legislation, but will later invite submissions and participation from anywhere repressive legislation is occurring.
Submitted poems will be compiled into a public digital collection for everyone to be able to access and share.
POETRY GUIDELINES
Erasure poetry is a poetic form in which poets erase, black out, or obscure sections of an existing text. Through the process of erasing, the poet creates something entirely new. Erasure poems can be created using print texts by using pens or markers to obscure letters, words, or entire sentences. Poems can also be created digitally using tools like Word, Google Docs, Pages, or Adobe Reader.
To write a poem for Unlawful Poetics, choose a piece of repressive Florida legislation as the base text for your poem. Several legislative options are offered on this page. Then, use whatever artistic process you prefer to create a liberatory and life-affirming poem. Submit your poems as .jpg or .pdf files at the Google form.
LEGISLATIVE OPTIONS
Unlawful Poetics is currently seeking submissions related to any piece of Florida legislation. To help poets navigate the tedious and complex process of researching and reading through legislation, Unlawful Poetics pulled sections from some particularly repressive laws that represent a wide range of issues. Poets are encouraged to write from the pages selected, but can also access the entire legislative text. Please note that these legislative summaries were not reviewed by legal or policy experts and are not intended as legal advice.
HB7 - Stop WOKE/
Florida Destruction of Education
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Restricts the ability of publicly funded K-20 education institutions to teach about race, gender, and sexual orientation
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Prohibits employers from requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings and considerations in hiring
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Redefines sex in binary, trans-exclusive terms
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Increases state oversight of school materials and encourages civil lawsuits against school districts
HB1069 - Don’t Say or Be LGBTQ+ Expansion
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Prohibits instruction on gender and sexual orientation in pre-K-8th grade and limits instruction for grades 9-12
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Prohibits staff from asking for or respecting the names and pronouns of gender diverse students
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Prohibits gender diverse staff from sharing their own correct titles, names, and pronouns
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Redefines sex in binary, trans-exclusive terms
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Encourages lawsuits against school districts
SB254 - Gender Affirming Care Criminalization
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Criminalizes gender affirming care for gender diverse youth and creates barriers for adults
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Felony charges for providers who violate the law
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Redefines sex in binary, trans-exclusive terms
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Positions gender affirming care as causing "serious physical harm" to youth
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Establishes Florida as a safe haven for unsupportive people who remove gender diverse youth from affirming homes
SB1718 - Immigration Criminalization
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Makes it virtually impossible for undocumented people to continue to live and work in Florida
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Requires employers with 25+ workers to E-Verify
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Criminalizes the use of false identification to obtain employment
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Prohibits the use of state funds for community ID programs and invalidates out-of-state driver's licenses for undocumented people
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Requires felony charges for anyone who travels into Florida with an undocumented person
SB 300 - 6 Week Abortion Ban
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Criminalizes abortion after 6 weeks, except in cases of rape, incest, human trafficking, fatal fetal abnormality, or to prevent "substantial and irreversible physical impairment"
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Prohibits use of telehealth
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Prohibits dispensing abortion medication through the mail
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Prohibits the use of state funds to aid a person traveling to another state for an abortion
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HB 1191 Radioactive Roads
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Requires Department of Transportation to conduct a study on the feasibility of using phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste material from the fertilizer industry, in road construction
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Upon completion of study, the law states that phosphogypsum is an acceptable pavement aggregate for use in road construction in Florida
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Presents significant risks to the environment, water quality, and workers paving the roads
SAMPLE POEMS
(See more poems on Instagram - @unlawfulpoetics)
Title: Disorderly Conduct
Poet: Yarrow Koning (they/them)
Location: West Palm Beach, FL/Atlanta, GA
Legislation: HB1690 - Don't Say or Be LGBTQ+ Expansion
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Title: Penal (Penile) Violation
Poet: Autumn Kioti (they/them)
Location: Lake Worth, FL
Legislation: SB 300 - 6 Week Abortion Ban